Nice shots from everyone. It's always interesting to see how the results came out so differently even though we pretty much have the same model, same pose, same lighting, same background, etc.
To answer an earlier question, I used lens blur in PS with gradient mask to create the blurring effect which center at the model's face. As you recall, we were using F 5.6 - 8 or higher - Plenty of depth of field. Also, it's so much easier to create the blurring effect in PS than adding filters in front of the lens nowadays. In blurring the background, I tried draw the viewer's attention to Elise's face. Viewers can be very easily distracted by her naked body.
Hair was a lot more distracting in the original picture. If you look closely, there is no stray hair on or near her eyes. That's because I PS them away and keep the two locks of hair on the left. I suppose I could PS them away as well, but this will be a lot of work to make it look natural. Being a young and sweet girl, she has a bit of pimples on her face. I too PS them away, but I tried to do it such that her face skin textured is retained.
Personally, I like the hair dangling in front of her face. In hindsight, I would probably take more time to set the lighting and pose right before taking the shots. There is only so much PS can do. And it's bloody time consuming.
If I can take 5 good shot vs. 100 average ones. I would anytime take the 5. The lesson I learnt is - take the time to plan, setup the lights, and pose the model. Take fewer shots but hopefully better ones.
The last step was to convert to B&W. There are many ways to convert. Even within PS, there are at least 8 that I am aware of. I find this one retains the facial tone well. It's all trial and error.
I am still taking the same picture and play with different effects. Maybe I will get around to look at the rest of the shots during this weekend :bsmilie: